Let me give you the good news first:
The commissary issues are being addressed. Change was brought by posting the current practice and discriminatory policy in place on social media outlets. The limit of one-hundred dollars per shop on food items was raised to one hundred fifty. I believe this was an act to pacify me so we would quit raising this issue for public review.
So let us review here…
This prison is supposed to allow shopping once a week, but we will only stop twice a month.
If I were an Illinois taxpayer, I would be deeply upset at the following facts still in play. First, this is a minimum security facility but it is being run like a medium or maximum security unit, shutting down the commissary from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. each day. The warden justifies this by stating, “Well, I need to shut it down while we run the chow lines.” But this is not done at the medium joint I just left.
The commissary keeps open and the inmates keep right on shopping at the same time as the chow line. The prisoners allowed to shop at the commissary at that time are sent to chow first. The state employs four people to ring out sales. Two of them go to chow for half an hour; when they return the other two sales clerks go dine. Their lunch hour for all four employees is started at ten a.m. and finishes at eleven a.m. At East Moline the employees are given a two hour lunch period each day. No sales from 10:30 to 12:30 even though the sales clerks are being paid. Then the commissary lines are terminated just one hour later, at one-thirty.
‘Do The Math’
So the Illinois Taxpayer is paying the East Moline Commissary Staff for a two-hour break five days a week, which equals ten hours a week they are paid to do nothing—no money being generated in sales to off-set the tax burden on the Illinois citizen. Then we have the termination of sales at one-thirty in the afternoon. So that adds another hour and a half each day the four employees are doing nothing. No revenue being earned. No sales being made. At five days a week we add another seven and one-half hours the taxpayer is paying this employee to do nothing. At thirty-eight dollars an hour, that is a sweet deal. So we have seventeen and one-half hours a week of no work times four employees. That adds up to $2660 per week that these employees are paid to do nothing.
Every hour that the inmates shop at the commissary, the revenue earned eases the tax requirements imposed on the Illinois taxpayer. Why? Because 60 percent of the sales revenue earned by the twenty-five percent write-up goes back into the I.D.O.C. budget. Not from your taxes each payday.
So we need to get back to having commissary open every week and all throughout the day. But only the citizen paying their wages can change this policy.
How?
Post your voice, let them know your opinion.
Prison Maintenance Update
I’m also glad to say that the maintenance of the prison has taken a great step forward. The building leaks from the rain have been corrected. The toilets and showers are fixed. The right pump for the water tower has been found. The sink holes are being filled. This I have witnessed with my own eyes.
Unfortunately, we still have more water leaks, ventilation issues and no air conditioning. The temperature in the dining room can get up to one hundred degrees on hot days.
The Bad News
More bad news is a dorm situation, which came to head this month. The wardens were refusing to address the gangs running craps games. When they lost, they were just going to the white guys’ boxes and tearing them open, then taking everything in there so they could re-enter the gambling games. When the white guys went to the correctional staff, nothing was done about it. Finally one white guy stood up and threatened to do something if the staff continued to turn a blind eye to the white prisoners being victimized by the gangs.
For his action, he was taken to segregation. I posted the story on my Facebook page (www.freelarryrockyharris1959/posts/2593582463994812).
When the cat was out of the bag, the wardens finally acted. But Gary still paid the price, as he remained in segregation for standing up to the staff for turning a blind eye.
Not A Sweet Place
So there you have an update on the good news and the bad news. East Moline was supposed to be a sweet place, but it still is not. I was denied the welder/fabricator job because of my present and past First Amendment activity, for filing grievances and exposing the treatment on social media outlets. This is an illegal act of denying me the ability to earn good conduct credits to reduce my sentence—a retaliatory act used to break me and silence me. If I do not comply and shut up, I am denied a job and schooling to earn good—conduct credits. But someone must be the whistleblower, so I guess that person is me. For without someone to stand up to those who run the prisons, they violate the law without recourse.
Your views and opinions are wanted here. Ultimately it is the people who set the standards for that its prisoners are subjected too.
